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Strauss-Kahn: No &quot;Friends In The Right Places&quot; In New York

VanCaneghan boasted to his alleged victims that Morgenthau --then the Manhattan District Attorney-- would never charge him with rape and sexual assault.

[Policing Wall Street]

The current imbroglio involving Dominique Strauss-Kahn, ex-Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, brings to mind the striking difference between the treatment accorded to Strauss-Kahn by the office of the Manhattan District Attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr., and the treatment accorded to one Robert VanCaneghan also an alleged sexual predator by Vance’s predecessor, Robert Morgenthau.

There could not be a greater contrast.

Strauss-Kahn allegedly attacked a hotel worker at the Sofitel, a luxury hotel in New York City. The press has described her as a maid. Yes, she was a room cleaner and an immigrant. But she had one of New York City’s most powerful unions, Local 6 of the Hotel Workers Union, behind her.

Strauss-Kahn was one of the most powerful individuals in international finance. As Managing Director of the IMF he literally controlled the fate of countries- and of the Euro. This was accomplished by the power of the IMF in lending billions of dollars to countries, which are having severe economic problems- including such Western countries as Greece and Ireland.

Robert VanCaneghan was a member of the Board of the American Stock Exchange and a partner in the Amex specialist firm, Miceli-VanCaneghan. While VanCaneghan was a millionaire, he did not have the wealth and status of Strauss-Kahn. But he had friends in high places, who had raised millions of dollars for President Bill Clinton. And in the plutocracy, which rules America, it is your friends, who can save you from prison.

And while VanCaneghan admitted to the alleged rapes and sexual assaults of female employees to members of the Board of the American Stock Exchange, including such heavyweights as Paul Volcker, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve; Richard Ravitch, former Lieutenant Governor of the State of New York; Herbert Allison, current Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability; Harvey Silverman, a billionaire and former managing director of Spear Leeds and Kellogg; and other such heavyweights, Strauss-Kahn has denied the charges of sexual assault and unlawful imprisonment.

But there was one statement, I learned, which VanCaneghan made to his victims that was chilling. VanCaneghan boasted to his alleged victims that Morgenthau --then the Manhattan District Attorney-- would never charge him with rape and sexual assault. VanCaneghan even boasted that Morgenthau was a good friend of Arthur Levitt, then Chairman of the Amex.

VanCaneghan also warned that the Amex would ruin their families. One alleged victim’s father was employed by a Wall Street firm. Another alleged victim’s brother was a partner in a small Amex specialist unit, which was involved in major tax fraud. The livelihoods of their relatives would be ruined.

So having been warned that Morgenthau would not investigate the alleged rapes, I went to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Several of the alleged victims of VanCaneghan’s sex crimes assured me that they would cooperate with the FBI.

Even though I provided the name of an individual, who had witnessed one alleged sexual assault that occurred on the premises of the Amex to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the names of six alleged victims of VanCaneghan’s predations, to United States Attorney General Janet Reno, no grand jury was empanelled to charge VanCaneghan with violation of the civil rights of these women in addition to the charges of rape and sexual assault.

VanCaneghan was never charged with the rapes. He had boasted of the influence of Levitt and Morgenthau. As revealed in one of my previous columns both also failed to investigate the alleged laundering of drug money by VanCaneghan and his partner, Louis Miceli.

So it is here that the most important difference between VanCaneghan and Strauss-Kahn must be emphatically stated. Strauss-Kahn was not a friend of powerful people on Wall Street who could help him or in the Manhattan DA's office.

So in the U.S. we have the worst kind of crony capitalism- one in which millionaires can get away with practically all sorts of crimes.

So much for lecturing Muslim countries about democracy and women’s rights.

Manfredonia was a trader on Wall Street who was ousted after he became a whistleblower.